# Unanswerable questions and eternal mysteries of pop culture (SPOILERS). **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453 "2005-12-13T19:04:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/41 "2005-12-14T00:24:29Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > but you will be hard-pressed to hear Disney corp. acknowledging that fact. 😛 However, they do have an answer to **Ethilrist** ’s Donald Duck question: > [@The Walt Disney Company's web site](#): > > Donald puts a towel when he gets out of the shower to dry off! When he gets out of the shower he’s pretty wet and doesn’t want to drip water all over the bathroom floor. > > Seriously, Donald Duck was created as a human-like character. He reacts to many situations the same way that a man would. Since a man would normally wrap a towel around his waist when stepping out of the shower, so does Donald. from [here](http://psc.disney.go.com/guestservices/8707.html#8707) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/42 "2005-12-14T00:24:42Z")
> [@Team of Scientists](#): > > What did Jack whisper to Nina in season 2 of 24? I’d like to know that one myself. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/43 "2005-12-14T00:52:57Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > Also: Is Tom Bombadil a Maia? Or more simply Who and what is Tom Bombadil? > [@AskNott](#): > > What was in the trunk of the car in Repo Man? I’ve heard it was the same thing as the Pulp Fiction briefcase. I add these: Who’s on first? What does a Yellow Light man? Jim ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/44 "2005-12-14T01:07:33Z")
In _Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me_, who is Judy? ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/45 "2005-12-14T01:10:22Z")
Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight? ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/46 "2005-12-14T01:11:20Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > Also: Is Tom Bombadil a Maia? Could the eagles have flown Frodo to Mount Doom? Did Brawn die in Transformers the Movie? Who would win: Star Destroyer vs Enterprise-D? ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/47 "2005-12-14T01:13:39Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > What does a Yellow Light man? > > Jim …Ignatowski? ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/48 "2005-12-14T01:42:10Z")
What did Billy Joe McAllister throw off the Tallahachee Bridge? ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/49 "2005-12-14T02:01:31Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > What was in the trunk of the car in **Repo Man**? I thought the movie made it clear that it was the corpses of aliens. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/50 "2005-12-14T02:20:13Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > Could the eagles have flown Frodo to Mount Doom? > …snip… Actually we know the answer to this one. The Eagles could not penetrate Morder while Sauron was alert and in Barad-Dur. It was only after Sauron’s destruction that they came winging in. Sauron knew they were servants of Manwe. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/51 "2005-12-14T02:29:52Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > What does a Yellow Light mean? Slow down! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/52 "2005-12-14T02:36:41Z")
OK. W…h…a…t d…o…e…s a y…e…l…l…o…w l…i…g…h…t m…e…a…n? ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/53 "2005-12-14T02:44:26Z")
What was in the unopened package in “Cast Away.” It was jokingly answered in an egg on the DVD. I would have opened it immediately. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/54 "2005-12-14T02:46:14Z")
> [@well he's back](#): > > What did Billy Joe McAllister throw off the Tallahachee Bridge? The One Ring, of course. > [@jrfranchi](#): > > Do Balrogs have Wings? Only the ones in the Air branch. Medical-corps balrogs have cadeucuses (cadeuci?); survey corps ones, palantiri on tripods, etc. > [@](#): > > Who’s on first? Well, naturally. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/55 "2005-12-14T04:43:56Z")
If I shot the sherrif, who the hell killed the deputy? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/56 "2005-12-14T04:57:32Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > We’ve had a few threads about this song. There was some very solid evidence that it’s about Warren Beatty. Especially since she once said, “there’s nothing in it that isn’t true of Warren Beatty.” From [here](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,93897,00.html): "The question is: Who is Carly Simon’s classic 1972 song “You’re So Vain” about? That’s the song about the cad who flies around in a Learjet and sleeps with “the wife of a close friend.” The answer is: Warren Beatty. Many people over the years thought possibly Mick Jagger, or even Simon’s then-soon-to-be-husband James Taylor, was the subject of the song. They were wrong. Jagger, in fact, provides the delicious backing vocals on the record that blend so well with Simon’s delivery. Paul and Linda McCartney also sang on the recording. But Beatty is the guy, no matter how much his name is protested by Simon or by him. Carly dated him in 1971, right after she became an overnight sensation with the lilting, tense ballad “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be.” Carly met Beatty in Los Angeles after she played at the Troubadour. And Warren … well, you can guess the rest. He was always the first to put out the welcome mat to beautiful young women who had arrived in Hollywood. In 1988 I interviewed Carly about her incredible career. When the subject of “You’re So Vain” came up we discussed Beatty at length. She said the song was “a little about Beatty.” It was a composite of three men from her L.A. days. Beatty, she told me, was not a good boyfriend. “I never took him seriously,” she told me. “He was great fun and very, very bright. But noooo … as a boyfriend. A lot of women like someone who is that smooth. In the beginning Warren was pretty good at pretending he was only smooth on the outside and a bowl of jelly on the inside. But he doesn’t do that secondary act very well now.” ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/57 "2005-12-14T05:04:01Z")
What was in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction? A McGuffin, pure and simple. I think a classic one among Baby Boomers was trying to figure out what the dad on Leave it to Beaver did for a living. Who was the Third Man? What was Rosebud? Oh wait, we know those… ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/58 "2005-12-14T05:44:16Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > Not to mention something Pumpkin (at least) would recognize (“Is that what I think it is?”). No, not necessarily recognize. You have to read that question literally: Yes, the contents of the briefcase are what he thinks they are, literally: they’re whatever he thinks they are. If you looked in the briefcase, they’d be whatever YOU think they are. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/59 "2005-12-14T05:53:06Z")
What was Meatloaf not willing to do for love? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453/60 "2005-12-14T05:59:38Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > What was Meatloaf not willing to do for love? Oh, don’t even get me started on that. He does say what we won’t do in the last section of the song, and it doesn’t help. Make something up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswerable-questions-and-eternal-mysteries-of-pop-culture-spoilers/335453.md?page=4)